Employee Engagement: It’s Not Just HR’s Baby Anymore

• Posted on March 2, 2016
• by Lisa Sperow
• in Employee Engagement
• No Comments.

“Here come the employee engagement surveys — it must be time for HR to check that box on their lists again!”

Before we even begin to dissect that kind of remark, let’s start by giving credit to any company that’s actually even bothered to do employee engagement surveys. While most companies will acknowledge that employee engagement is very important to them, not enough will take the first step towards measuring, managing and improving it with some kind of benchmark survey. So…kudos to any company for even getting that far!

The next steps that should come after the survey results are in include disseminating the results, developing action plans and strategies for improving engagement, executing on those plans, and remeasuring to check for progress.

But whose job is that?

According to Aon Hewitt in their  2015 Trends in Employee Engagement Report, “Conventional wisdom may view HR as the owner of employee engagement, but current research shows the role of the HR professional is to support the leaders of the organization in achieving the engagement agenda.”

There are many stakeholders involved in creating a culture of engagement, with the four critical stakeholders being  HR, people managers, the individual employee, and senior leaders, they say. But leaders are the ultimate owners of creating a culture of engagement.

I was once a part of an organization in which I reported to a leader who showed complete disdain for conducting the annual engagement report reviews with our group. As an organization, the company was committed to a bi-annual engagement review process and required that all leaders meet with their groups to review the numbers and develop action plans for improvement. Our group scored the lowest of all of the groups in our division, and man, was she mad about it! Not only did she make her irritation with the low numbers quite clear to everyone, but she also made it clear that she did not expect to be embarrassed by such low engagement levels again. On top of that, she also made it known that she had better things to do, and “farmed out” the development of the action plan – and it’s execution – to the two newest members of the team.

How inspiring. “You better get engaged. Or else. This is your problem… now you fix it!.”

(Guess who helped contribute to the low engagement numbers in that division?)

Who is in a better position to increase engagement in a team? HR, who does not have day-to-day interaction with most employees, or the team’s managers and leaders who do have daily interaction with them?

Again, as AON Hewitt shares in their report, “Creating a culture of engagement requires pulling multiple levers and navigating many organizational stakeholders…Silver bullets do not work and relying only on HR or the manager is insufficient…  Leaders make engagement happen.” 

Creating a culture of engagement starts with leaders.

So what is HR supposed to be doing?

In their article Rethinking HR’s Role in Employee Engagement, John Kaufman and Rob Markey say, “Rather than leading survey analyses and developing initiatives, HR staff should be helping company leaders at all levels become more accountable for improving engagement levels — rather than trying to do it for them.”

In essence, HR should be partnering with leaders at all levels. They should ensure that leaders understand the business impact of having engaged (and disengaged!) employees and the importance of their individual roles in achieving the desired culture and results.

Employee engagement absolutely matters to HR, but creating and sustaining a culture of engagement can’t rest on their shoulders alone.

“The best companies,”  says AON Hewitt, “… are led by CEO’s who understand that employee engagement is not just a ‘nice to have’ but critical to achieving business results. Leaders in these elite organizations also understand that employee engagement is primarily their responsibility.”

The message couldn’t be clearer.

HR and company leaders must work together to drive engagement levels.

HR: you’re not off the hook here, but you’re not alone either. Get your leaders involved! As Kaufman and Markey said, you can’t do it for them, but you can certainly do it with them!

LEGEND Talent Management can help your company understand the business impact of creating an engaged workforce and the importance of getting leaders involved with our Employee Engagement Workshops.